‘RT gives voice to western dissidents’: Jill Stein on EU’s ‘anti-propaganda’ resolution
An EU’s “anti-propaganda” resolution targeted Russian media. According to political and legal experts across the Atlantic, this was because it allowed western dissidents’ voices to be heard – something corporate mainstream media and “crazy war hawks” are unhappy with.
On Wednesday, members of the European Parliament approved the “proposal for resolution on the strategic communication from the European Union to counter propaganda against third parties.”
The proposal, drafted by a Polish MEP is supposed to be a response to what the EU says is Russian “propaganda and misinformation.” The document singles out RT and Sputnik news agency as being particularly devious tools of propaganda, and puts Russian media in the same basket with the Islamic State.
Russian media has become a platform for political dissidents, who for various reasons do not receive mainstream western media coverage, US Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein told RT. She said that putting them in line with Islamic State is ridiculous.
“I can speak to my experience here in the US, where so many political dissidents like myself who are basically are locked out of our corporate media coverage. We looked at RT for access to the American public,” Stein said.
“Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of options for being able to speak to the American public. Charging Russian TV with being a dangerous ISIS-type threat – I don’t really get that.”
Mike Papantonio, American attorney and radio show host, who is set to host a legal show on RT America, said that big corporations might be uncomfortable with Russian media highlighting unwanted stories, which could motivate the EU parliament’s resolution.
Papantonio believes “there’s always a money trail,” and one should look into “the backstory” of such actions.“It has to do with not just politics. You have war hawks out there, they want to sell more weapons, they love the intrigue of another Cold War,” Papantonio told RT.
“Then you have corporate media, and in corporate media part of that is mega corporations around the world.”
“The woman who came forward with that proposal. Look at her history, she was with the World Bank, she has all these connections to corporations all over Europe. There’s always a money trail on something like this.”
The whole “propaganda” spin is nowadays far from some pure politics, but always involves money.
“Now think about this. Let me tell what the real propaganda is. If I call ABC, or CBS, or NBC, and I say ‘Will you please do a story about a drug that is killing thousands of women every day? And by the way the drug is manufactured by Pfizer, or whatever, or some advertiser.’ They’ll say ‘No we can’t do the story, because our advertiser won’t let us.’That’s what Jill Stein was just talking about – you can’t get the stories out in corporate media,” Papantonio told RT.
“I’ve been a commentator for RT for years. Not one time, not one time I’ve been asked to say anything other than what the truth of the story was. But I’ve also been in NBC where I was told I could do no more stories because I talked about one of the advertisers and they got mad. That’s the contrast,” Papantonio added.
Apart from strong corporation interests, the still empowered Cold War generation of western politics is responsible for such hostile and “ridiculous“ actions, according to Papantonio.
“We still have baby-boomers around. And if you talk to baby boomers, they were all for invading Syria, invading Libya. They’re a fearful type. And until the baby-boomer Cold War types move through, we’re going to have these ridiculous conversations,” said Papantonio.
“This is just about crazy baby boomer war hawks, or the crazy DNC that wants to blame Russia for everything.
"But there’s another side to this, it has to do with corporate media and American corporations not liking what Russian television does. They tell stories, the corporate media can’t tell because their advertisers won’t let them tell the story. They’ll say 'if you tell the story, we’re going to pull the ad money.' And some cat on the 50th floor, some MBA guy, is making a decision whether they can tell the stories.”
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
